“Well… I’d never expect a place like this to be here,” I said as I looked up at the seemingly innocuous apartment building. On the front steps, a young man sat listening to his music, seemingly unconcerned with the rest of the world. The only indication that this building was not what it seemed was that the 1 and 0 of the building number had miniature lightning bolts carved into them. “What’s this place called again… Live something? And why am I dressed like this?” I asked, referring to the trench coat, or rather, the leather straps that I wore under it.

“Livewire Club,” my guide answered. Jacob ‘Jak’ Daniels, as he liked to be called, was one of the best infiltrators and love collectors that I had ever had the pleasure of acquiring. In the month since his conversion, he had brought in three times more love than any other changeling over the same period. Tonight, he was showing Nick and me the secret to his success. Grinning, Jak said, “And you’re wearing that because that is the proper attire. This place is invitation only, and the bouncers are a little rough. Well, rough is a relative term here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh,” Jak replied, “You’ll see.” My infiltrator walked up to the guy on the steps. From his trench coat pocket, Jak produced three wristbands and a flash drive engraved with a lightning bolt. After tossing a wristband to both Nick and me to serve as our entry passes, he put his own on and handed the drive to the man. Without bothering to look up, the doorman snatched the flash drive away and tapped something on his smart phone’s screen. The door behind him gave a slight *click* as the remote lock undid itself. “Come on.” Nick and I followed quickly behind our guide.

As the door shut behind us, we were assaulted by the odor suspended in the hallway’s air; the scent of lust, both organic and emotional, overwhelmed our senses. “Whoa, strong,” Nick said, stumbling under the unexpected sensory onslaught. It suddenly all made sense. The overpowering sensations, hidden location, and bondage gear under our trench coats, the Livewire Club was a sex club.

“Welcome, your highness, to my little slice of heaven~” Jak sang, voice laden with smug pride.

Opening the door at the end of the hall, my assumption was confirmed and the mystery of his success was revealed. Throughout the large, sci-fi themed room, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of people dancing, grinding, and even straight up fucking one another. More acrobatic dancers hung by their straps from the ceiling, suspended on cables that were made to look like power lines.

The costumes worn by the clubbers themselves ranged from your standard – if very erotic – clothes to bondage gear and role-playing costumes. One man that passed us had a whole ‘cyborg’ theme to his costume, including a nerve-controlled, prosthetic third arm.

Jak dropped his trench coat to reveal his athletic body, covered in leather straps. However, from the waist down, he had left his bizarrely jointed changeling legs– minus the holes – which gave him a very peculiar appearance. By the time I finished examining my guide’s body, Nick had already run off to join in the festivities.

The whole scene was unbelievably arousing, both to me and the humans around me. I could feel my inner incubus stirring as I stared at the occupants of Livewire. Even as I began greedily sucking in the lust as fast as I could, my empty stomach growled, declaring that even this feast was not enough – would never be enough. All I could think through the aphrodisiac fog was, ‘MINE!’

Before I could go charging in, Jak grabbed my arm. “Hang on, your highness. I want to point out the fruits of my labor.” Pointing to the DJ on stage, my love collector said, “See him? That’s the owner of this place. Everyone here calls him Anon, thinking it’s a pseudonym. Guess what? The name on his birth certificate is Anonymous.” Giving a light chuckle, Jak pointed to another. “The bartender? That’s Anthony Titarenko. Though he’s a Russian immigrant and a member of Exorcism of Sin, the religious group, Anthony’s not officially a member of any of the gangs around here. However, he’s made a name for himself as an information trader.”

Pointing to a group of people on the landing overlooking the dance floor, Jak commented, “Then up there, from left to right, we have a pimp, a crack dealer, don’t know him, a meth dealer, their boss, two hit-men, Senator MacArthur, and Police Chief Douglass. They’re all as crooked as they come, and are regulars here. So, what’s first, food of business?”

Decisions, decisions… At this point, I was quite literally drooling. Free money? Political control? Food and sex? “Mmmm... Jak, I’m proud of you. This is exactly the kind of thing our hive needs. Expect a little something extra for your hard work.”

“You’re too kind, your highness,” Jak said, “but I couldn’t take it. I do this job for the fun of it. Besides, I still owe you for saving me off the streets, now don’t I?” Before I could reply, he had turned and dashed off into the crowd.

As I considered what to do first, my stomach and loins ended up making the decision for me. A woman came up and wrapped her arms around me, her breasts pressed up against my back. “You new here, hot stuff?” She whispered into my ear. “I don’t recognize you. How’s about I show you around?”

The girl straddling my lap broke away first, removing her tongue from my mouth. She was not the same girl that first came up to me, nor was she the second. I think that this is number six. Seven? I’m not really sure. Too much alcohol tends to fog things up. Hell, I don’t even know this girl’s name; Chrysalis’s seduction techniques worked that fast. I’m fuller than I’ve ever felt before, yet my stomach demands more. I felt like a starved man at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Even as I groped her breasts – which she really did enjoy – I softly moaned, “More… all mine.” Behind me, Nick and Jak walked up to where I’m seated. One of them taped me on the shoulder.

“Enjoying yourself?” Nick asks. When I turn to look at him, I notice that he is sweaty and covered in grime from his conquests. Jak, standing further back, is in a similar condition. “Well, the place is closing for the morning, and I wondered if you wanted to catch some people before we left?”

“Ah, yes…” I half said, half moaned. Lost in greedy thoughts, I didn’t notice my eyes flash a brilliant, two-tone green. My meal, however, did.

“Now that’s a cool trick. How did you do that with your eyes?”

Realizing my blunder, I smoothly replied, “Ah, it just happens sometimes. Now, if you’ll excuse me… Oh, I never caught your name. I’m Rex.”

“Sarah *Hic* Shrader,” she replied, her words muddled slightly by the alcohol.

“Well then, Sarah Shrader, thank you for tonight. Now, to see if I can catch Chief Douglas before he carts his drunken ass home.”

“Oh, *Hic* the boss is here?” Sarah asked. “Always knew he was *Hic* a sleaze.”

“So would that make you Officer Shrader?” At her nod, I let out a throaty, drunken chuckle. “Well, fuck the police.”

“I think you just did,” Nick groaned.

Given enough magic, a changeling can quickly heal from almost any injury that is not instantly fatal or damaging to the nerves. Unfortunately, curing a hangover is not one of those easy fixes. I mentally cursed Selene for letting the sun rise this morning and allowing this sunbeam to hit my face. I winced when I heard her scream; Why did Klika decide that now was a good time to roughhouse with the little human-alicorn hybrid?

Groaning, I sat up out of bed. ‘At least,’ I consoled myself, ‘I got the bartender, the DJ, and the police chief. And that lust… mmmm… Not a bad haul.’ The aforementioned ex-humans were currently cocooned safely within the truck that we had taken to the club. Mentally, I probed my newest converts; I figured that I had about twenty hours before they hatched. It was more than enough time for today’s tasks before I needed to attend to them. With those three under my rule, my potential information network would expand dramatically and I would gain a position of power within the Atlanta Police Department, especially with how corrupt it had become within the past few years.

As I sat down to a breakfast of nearly raw steak, I called Selene and Klika over to me. “Girls, I have work that needs to be done out of the apartment today. Klika, I trust that you’ll keep an eye on your little sister?” Though Klika was physically younger and smaller in her true form than Selene, she was mentally far more mature than her sister because of her changeling heritage. At Klika’s nod, I smiled. “Good. Now, Selene, your math tutor will be here at 2:00. Klika, will you help Selene practice her magic until then? How’s this: Selene, if you work hard with your math tutor and Klika thinks that you have the Body-Illusion spell completely mastered by the time I get back, then we’ll go out for hot chocolate for Selene. Sound good?”

“COOL!” The little moon girl cheered.

“Oh, and Klika? I’ll give you extra allowance money if you take her practice seriously,” I said.

“Don’t worry, daddy! I won’t let her get distracted,” Klika assured me. I smiled in return.

Self-driving cars are a wonderful thing. I’m really glad that I splurged for them; my drunken ass wouldn’t have made it home safely last night and I didn’t want to be driving anywhere while hung-over today. As I recline in the driver’s seat, the car takes me across the city. Idly, I brush a long strand of golden hair out of my eye.

When I arrived at my destination, I carefully climbed out of the car. After taking a moment to steady myself on my high heels, ‘Jane’ the business woman entered the Atlanta Homeless shelter. Madison, the woman in charge of this shelter, greeted me. “Hey there, Jane! Let me guess, you’re hiring again?”

“Why else would Ah be here?” I responded with a quasi-fake smile. For my ‘Jane’ persona, I had dramatically increased my southern accent and made my voice very sweet sounding. “Ah’ve found some of my company’s best employees here.”

“Well, that’s good to here!” She said. “The back room is open if you want to interview their like before.”

Nodding, I turned to head into the main room, as usual. Upon arriving, I saw the three dozen or so men, women, and children who had remained in the shelter for the day. Clearing my throat, I called out, “Hello, ya’ll! My name is Jane Palmquest, and Ah work for Greenfyre, Inc. Ah wish to inform you – on the behalf of my company – that we are hiring now.” I smiled as several people perked up. “Yes, it’s exciting. Anyone over the age of sixteen who wishes to inquire, please follow me.” When over half the room’s occupants complied, I sighed; it was going to be a long day.

The young, African-American woman across the table from me looked really nervous, to which the emotion radiating off her agreed. Putting on my best friendly smile, I said, “Miss…”

“Jasmine. Jasmine Griffin.”

“Jasmine, relax. Ah wanted to see what you are like with a sudden, unexpected interview to gauge what you are like as a person,” I explained. “Now, what Ah’m looking for is to see if you are the right type of person. Ah cannot explain exactly what the job position is yet; Ah have to know if you would be a good match first. Do not worry about your skill or educational background; we provide on-the-job training. Ah also do not care about any of your personal history: drugs, crime, family, previous employment, etc. The only thing that matter are you and me right now, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good,” I said. “Now, many of these questions are very personal in nature. Know that ya don’t have to answer any of them; however, the more you answer, the better your chances are that you will get my recommendation for the formal interview, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jasmine replied again.

“Tell me, do ya like your life? Would ya change a portion? Change yourself? Ya family? Or would ya rather completely start from scratch with a new identity?”

After thinking for a minute, my subject replied, “I don’t know. I guess it would be fun to try something new. I’ve always wanted to be a singer, but…” she trailed off for a moment, “…yeah, I don’t really have the voice for that.”

Bluntly, I asked, “Have ya ever had suicidal thoughts?”

“W-w-what?” Jasmine spluttered.

“Ah’m not asking if you are suicidal,” I said, “nor am Ah asking if you have ever tried committing suicide. Simply, have ya thought about ending your own life?”

“N-no, never.” However, by reading her emotions, I could sense the inner conflict that comes when a person tells an untruth.

“Have ya ever wanted to kill someone?” Again, she answered no, and again, I could tell that she was lying. “If ya could make Jasmine Griffin disappear right now and walk away from this building as someone completely different, would ya?”

“Didn’t I already answer that? I said I thought it might be fun to try something new.”

I tapped my fingers idly on the table, wishing that my hangover headache would go away already. “Last question,” I said, “if ya could do anything – and you have a little magic to help ya do it – and you were guaranteed to get away with it without anyone knowing that it was you that did it, what would ya do?”

“Hmm… I’d want to go to the moon, just to see why it started acting weird last month. Or maybe rob a bank, like the Phantoms. Two years and nearly twenty robberies, yet there are still no traces! Ya think that they use magic?” Jasmine asked.

“Anything is possible.” On the inside, I was grinning like a madman. Our bank robbing days, having ended months ago, were still legendary in the minds of the public. Outside, however, I maintained my serene expression. “Well, Jasmine, Ah think Ah know what Ah need to know. Despite what ya may be thinking the job is based on those questions, no, that isn’t it.” I pulled out a business card with the address of a small warehouse and a time printed on it. “Be there at that time for your formal examination, where we’ll explain all the details of the job. For our homeless employees, we offer discounted housing, so Ah would strongly recommend showing up there tomorrow.”

“Oh, thank you very much!”

“Why do you think we’re meeting here, of all places?” one man whispered to another. They, along with sixteen others, stood waiting in a small, half empty warehouse. The opposite half of the room was blocked off by a large screen. Around the edge of their half, eighteen uniformed men stood at attention.

The clock struck twelve and I walked into the room while disguised as Jane. “Hello, everyone! Ah’m glad ya’ll can make it. Now, before I can explain the nature of the job ya’ll are here for, Ah need to warn you; secrecy is a big part of what we do at Greenfyre. If ya don’t think that you can keep a secret, or you don’t wish to be involved, the door’s right there.” I waved back to the entrance way that I had just emerged from. “If ya do stay, consider yourself hired. The contract is, however, quite binding. Ah can promise you this: the pay is good and the benefits are outstanding. Ah’ll give you twenty minutes to chose.”

As the clock ticked forwards, I could feel the people getting nervous; they had very few clues as to what it is that they are getting involved with. Some of them paced back and forth, while others just sat down on the floor. Six people did end up leaving before I called time.

“Is this everyone?” I asked. When they nodded, I gathered up my magic and shut the door with a wave of my hand. The lock clicked into place. “Now,” I said, dropping my false accent in the process, “Let me really introduce myself.”

A rush of green fire enveloped my form. Shocked, the twelve remaining humans backed away in fright. When the flames cleared, I towered over everybody in the room. While the humans were distracted by me, my changelings dropped their disguises. “I’m Alvarium Rex, King of the Changeling Hive,” I said in my deep, distorted voice. “I’m also the CEO of Greenfyre, the business front for my nation; you can see where it gets the name.”

“What the hell are you?” a human voice called out.

Ignoring him, I gave a quick flex of my magic and slid the divider away from the center of the room. Behind it, dozens of cocoons were revealed; each one contained a human who was being contained to be fed upon while the love collectors fed on their partners. Gasps of surprise emanated from the dozen conscious humans. “I’m so glad you decided to join. Collectors, if you would?”

The collectors pounced, wings propelling them faster than expected. The humans barely had time to react as my changelings swarmed them. One by one, the humans fell to the venomous bites of my people. One guy, in particular, managed to hold them off for a good five minutes before he too succumbed.

“I’m really quite sorry about the rough treatment. It was the only way,” I consoled, knowing that the immobile humans could still hear me. As the psychedelic portions of our venom took hold, I could feel them emotionally lose their grip on reality. “Cocoon them.”

One by one, they were wrapped up tight. And one by one, I initiated the conversion process on the soon-to-be ex-humans. “Hey,” I said to them once they were all safely stowed away, even though the hallucinations made it near impossible for them to focus on me. “At least I wasn’t lying about the job or giving you a home. Trust me, this is for the better.”

Sally-Ann flitted around her office space, grabbing papers and charts out from their disorganized heaps. Across her wall, various documents were pinned up, threads of string chasing the cross references she had made. Various taped-up charts detailed everything from computer code to arcane formulas.

I watched her attempt to organize herself from my seat on a small cloud; she had an honest-to-god cloud in her office and used it as a chair. It was the comfiest thing I had ever sat upon. I decided then and there that I would make a cloud bed when I got back to my apartment. All I’d need is tap water.

Finally, she seemed to have everything she needed in her arms. As she spread them out on the table, I saw tables, charts, some of the most complex magical formulas I had ever seen, a laptop, and something that looked like it was made out of tape and aluminum foil. “Oh, your highness, I’m so excited to have your help with this project!” she squealed. “Oh, right, professionalism. Sorry. Anyway, before we started, I wanted to know if you’d be willing to authorize an expedition to Cloudsdale.”

“Oh, what’s up, besides the obvious floating city?”

The head of Research & Development giggled. “Some of my team found references to weather manipulating techniques in the Canterlot Archives – which, by the way, we’ve just finished compiling a searchable database for – but no actual instructions for the techniques. Even if we never get into the weather business, I think that having the information from the Cloudsdale Library might be a good idea anyway.”

I rocked back and forth on the puffy cloud as I listened to my excited changeling’s proposal. They say that knowledge is power; Sally-Anne was absolutely right about the value of retrieving said knowledge. Mulling it over, I realized that it would only take a pair of changelings a few hours of work to capture the sky city’s knowledge. I’d only have to coordinate with Chrysalis about getting a guide, and then Sally-Anne’s team could cross over through one of our more permanent portals. Nodding in approval, I said, “Assemble a retrieval team. I’ll get you a guide to Cloudsdale.”

Sally-Anne literally jumped for joy. “Thank you, your highness! I promise that we won’t let you down!”

“Now, why have you asked for my help?” I inquired.

“Well, my king, I am conducting a formal analysis on all magic that we can use. This project will, if all goes to plan, enable us to develop a computer code equivalent to the arcane formulas we use to mold our magic for the spells. Our preliminary results have indicated that computers can manipulate magic fields and draw upon the reserves stored within crystals. Digitizing magic would enable the casting of complex magic by anyone, not just changelings. Nothing is set in stone yet, so don’t hold your breath, but the results are promising.”

“Cut to the chase. What do you need from me?” I asked.

Blushing, Sally-Anne said, “Sorry, I was rambling. Anyway, you’re the hive’s foremost expert on the Teleportation spell, as well as being the controller of the hive mind. Change.lng,” she gestured to her laptop, “is going to help me with the analysis. When I give you the signal, I want you to teleport, but I want you to make the destination exactly the same as your starting location. This will allow.lng to record the core formation of the spell matrix.”

“Got it,” I replied. She counted down from ten while the living program formed a spell. The green aura expanded out from the computer and enveloped me. A tenth of a second after 0, I had gathered up my magic and folded it into the correct matrix for teleportation. I flashed, but remained unmoved. Change.lng’s aura flickered out as a series of symbols appeared on the screen. “How is that?”

“Good,” Sally-Anne replied with a smile. “Come have a look.”

I peered at the monitor and read through the two page formula. It was interesting seeing the formula written out instead of as just an idea. I smirked when I saw the last symbol. “Ha, it caught it.”

“Caught what, sir?”

Pointing at the symbol, I declared, “I intentionally inverted Clover the Clever’s sixth constant. Wastes a bit of magic, sure, but now I know that it’s really reading me.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea, your highness,” she said enthusiastically. “Change.lng, if you would fix that and save the file, that would be great.”

//Change.lng: Understood, creator,// the program said through the computer’s speakers.

“Now, for the next test…” She trailed off, her voice hesitant. A light blush decorated her cheeks. “Well…”

“You want me to test the hive connection, right?”

The blush on her face intensified. “… Yes. I’m going to need you to…” Her voice dropped into an indecipherable mutter.

“What was that?”

“I… need you to fully invade my mind.”

“WHAT?” I yelled.

“I need to be in your total control, with no thoughts of my own, no control over my body, and no memory left unseen. I need you to fill the core of my mind with yourself.”

If there was one power I did not like using, it was full mental invasion. Basically, she had just asked me to mind-rape her. I had done it before, exactly three times. The first was on Marcus, my second ever convert. Though he seemed normal to outsiders, I had attempted to force loyalty upon him and accidentally left him nothing more than a brainwashed slave with little personality of his own, though I did not realize it until a week or so later. By that time, I had already converted Clark Oswin. The zealot personality that was left in his place eventually took the name Taruke, servant. Katie Sanders was number three. In an attempt to be more subtle about ‘reprogramming’ her, I went only half as far as I had with the previous two. That was a mistake. The old and new parts of her mind could not reconcile their differences. I felt the noose tighten around her neck and her mind sever the connection to the hive.

Since then, I had never done more than read the surface thoughts of my changelings and gave orders. For her to ask me to invade her mind so fully, even if I retracted without changing anything, felt so wrong. Mentally, I did the equivalent of curling up in a ball; So hidden away from the link, I fell deaf to the voices of my hive. “Why would you ask me to do something like that?”

“Your highness, for the good of the hive, I want to know how the link works. For myself however, I want to feel it for myself. I want to know what it’s like to surrender myself so completely to another, one that has total control over me… someone who could destroy me at a whim.” She sighed, blush intensifying. Even without the link, I could tell that she was getting off on the idea; it only served to disturb me more. “Had we lived even a few hundred years ago, you could have been called a god. Someone with your power…”

She looked me in the eye. “I want this,” Sally-Anne said, poking the air in front of her for emphasis. “If anything happens, I’ve made my peace. But it won’t, because I trust you.”

“What if I hurt you? How could you ever forgive me?”

She rested her hand on my shoulder. “There’s nothing to forgive. Do it.”

I nodded while she closed her eyes. With a thought, I signaled Change.lng to start recording us. Gathering my magic and consciousness into the fleshy crown on my head that served as the focal point for the link, I crept gently down the connection. “Sorry,” I whispered.

The feeling was akin to being squeezed down a pipe, then finding yourself in a giant room in which you cannot help but to grow and fill it. The personality that was Sally-Anne was simultaneously crushed by my presence and saturated by my consciousness; every thought, every memory, every sense that was once hers, was now mine. I opened both sets of eyes and looked at myself, one body sitting on a cloud and the other standing next to it. I was simultaneously one person and two – a paradoxical sensation if there ever was one.

Both sets of eyes turned towards the computer monitor where streams of arcane symbols were appearing. Sally-Anne’s memories told me to wait to release the invasion until the computer was done. However, this process was taking far longer than it had before and I wanted it done now. Catching a glimpse of my first body with the eyes of my second, I lay witness to the recollection of Sally-Anne’s memories concerning me. Thoughts, conversations, even sexual fantasies involving me came to mind; the suppressed personality, though unable to fight off my control, squirmed within its confines, as if it was aware of what I was seeing. The whole situation left me feeling very dirty. It was not the explicit dreams – that I could deal with – but rather that I was witness to something so intimate and private.

Upon the ping of the computer signaling its completion, I retracted as fast as I could. Hastily, I stood from my cloud seat and shook her shoulders, for they were hers once again. She blinked, then spoke, “Wow… That… was terrifying. I felt so small. It was so dark…” Tears welled up in my eyes. I feared that I had done something horrible to her. “..but it was so warm,” she continued. “I could feel your gentle embrace. Even without a body of my own, I felt complete. Were I human, I would say that that is the feeling of being cradled by a god.”

She jumped, moving so fast that I had no time to react. Her lips met mine in a passionate kiss. Though her arms reached around to embrace me, I pushed away. “I’m so sorry!” I wailed. “I broke you! I shattered someone again!”

“Shhh…” she hissed gently. “It’s alright. I’m fine. The truth is, I’ve always wanted you to do that to me.”

“Oh… um…” I mumbled, unable to form words. “Can we get back to science, at least until I get my head on straight?” Changing the subject, yes, that was good. I did not want anything to do with emotions right now, not with our heads still so scrambled.

“Mmm… fine,” Sally-Anne relented. She turned to the laptop and examined the magic that had been recorded, all six-thousand pages of it. “Damn, that’s some complex magic.”

“What? And since when did you swear?” I asked as I leaned in towards the computer.

“I said I was fine, not unchanged,” She said. My heart sank. “See these symbols?” She pointed to the first few lines of magical code. “These are only associated with soul magic, monstrously powerful stuff. This will take weeks to decipher it all. That reminds me,” her magic flared and she pulled the aluminum foil thing towards herself. My… our… her memories told me that it was a disposable affinity tester.

“You want to see what kind of magic I’m good at?” I spoke. At her confirmation, I took the testing device and channeled a miniscule portion of my magic into it. Symbols across the board lit up, displaying the strength of my magic’s attunement to the different classifications. The results were disheartening, to say the least.

Examining my results, The R&D head said, “I’m so sorry, your highness. That is a real shame.”

“I expected to have a better score than that. To think that I’ll never fling fireballs or lightning bolts, or any element for that matter. There goes my RPG game dreams. Besides a boost in mental magic, I’m below average in everything. Hey, what are those?” I said, pointing to some of the other, more obscure characters that were glowing with my magic.

“I’ll have to double check. I just copied this device from the diagram when I made it. I just assumed that they helped it work, but now I’m not so sure. That last one lit up for me, too, though not as brightly.” The R&D head pulled up a new window and started searching the Canterlot Archive. It only took her a few minutes to find the correct book, then another minute to find the correct passage within. “Ah, those are the special affinities. It is so rare that a unicorn even has a hope of using those branches of magic that most don’t even test for them. It looks like we are an exception.”

“So what’s the verdict?”

“Hmm… It looks like you have an affinity, from least to greatest, in divination, space/time – which explains your teleportation skill – and, like me, soul magic. The soul magic affinity is far stronger for you than me,” she explained. Pulling up a new window on the laptop, she said showed me a spell formula. “This is Soul-Sight, the most basic of the spiritual school of magic. Go look out the window and cast it on yourself. It’s breathtaking; I’ve tried it myself.”

The formula looked simple enough. After memorizing it quickly, I strode to the window. I closed my eyes, formed the spell, and released. The drain was almost unnoticeable. Upon opening my eyes, I saw the world in blurry monochrome. However, when I saw a man on the sidewalk below, my jaw dropped. He was a figure made of pure light and flame in a color that was utterly impossible. Unlike the blurry, grey backdrop, he stood out sharper than I had ever seen before. There were no words to describe the logic-defying beauty that was the man’s soul. Up and down the street, I saw more and more people, each more stunning than the last. Within me, a feeling of desire stirred; whether it was greed, lust, or hunger, I could not say.

Turning, I made to look at the nearest soul to me. Immediately, I regretted that. Though she looked as beautiful as any other soul, her visage was marred by what looked like thick, thorny v̞̫̮͈̤͞ͅi͙̰͝n҉̜̳͚e̙̣͢s that dove in and out of the flesh of her soul. Each v̞̫̮͈̤͞ͅi͙̰͝n҉̜̳͚e̙̣͢, a horrible, revolting, similarly impossible color, seemed to be both drinking her essence and replacing it with theirs. Unlike the other human souls, Sally-Anne had barbed v̞̫̮͈̤͞ͅi͙̰͝n҉̜̳͚e̙̣͢s of her own that seemed to be affectionately curling around the parasitic ones. Worse, said parasite imparted within me a sense of familiarity, despite me having never seen it before.

It was when I followed one of the longest and thickest foreign v̞̫̮͈̤͞ͅi͙̰͝n҉̜̳͚e̙̣͢s that I felt sick; it stretched out towards me before fading away inches from my skin. At that moment, I realized that I could not see my own soul. With a feeling of dread, I sent a simple control command down the link to the changeling. <<Clench your fist.>> The soul v̞̫̮͈̤͞ͅi͙̰͝n҉̜̳͚e̙̣͢ pulsed and her fingers curled. I deactivated the spell. “Sally… you can cast Soul-Sight, right?”

“Yes, your majesty.”

“What do I look like?”

Her eyes closed as her fingers glowed with the magic. When she opened them, her eyes were illuminated by the Soul-Sight.

She blinked.

Her eyes widened and pupils constricted.

Tears of blood streamed down her cheeks.

Her silent screams of agony rocked the entire hive.

Author's Notes:

*Ding* have a chapter. Look! I got my bell fixed!

... You don't care about that, do you? *Slams head on desk.*

Anyway, I think it's safe to assume that I need to get laid or something...

This chapter was brought to you by the dystopia and Lovecraftian horror. (The v̵̲̬̕į̪͍̭͉͖̫͙́n͈̘͇̝̞͡e̝͓̖͡s̟̖̠ even warp the text itself.)

For those who are confused on the time, this chapter covers 3 different days and takes place about a month after the previous chapter.

---

Thank you, my wonderful editors. Doctor_N and Alternate madness are great people!

I also have the next chapter almost ready for publishing. It just needs a little spit-shine.

Alternate Madness Note:

WELP! Thankfully I was already planning to take a shower after editing this!

NEVER THE LESS! See you guys next time, I gotta go teach Luna how to play Beethoofen's Moonlight Sonata.

---

Anyway, you know that very last scene, the one with the soul-sight? Yeah, that's totally not important at all. Oh, and whatever you do, never look at Chrysalis that way.

On a lighter note, I've finally established the limits of Rex's magic! While he has a strong magic reserve when he's eating well, he actually is rather poor at magic over all with a few notable exceptions.(more below). We also have another way to detect changelings besides beating them up, using a Geiger counter, or magically stripping their disguise.

---

Trivia time!!!

-- The Atlanta Police Department has suffered under a wave of corrupt politicians, reducing the accountability of the department and allowing the corruption to take root within the force itself.

-- All magic using individuals have affinities for certain types of magic. These types of magic are classified by orientation (Harmony/Dark/Chaos), physicality (physical/mental), state (active/enchantment) and element (Fire/Water/Earth/Air/Lightning/Void). These are each classified on a scale of -5 to +5, where 0 is normal, -5 means that the category is impossible to use, and +5 means the magic comes as easy as breathing. Increasing the score also reduces the magical cost.

-- Twilight Sparkle scored a +3 on all types of magic. Most unicorns never score anything other than -1 to +1, while specialists score a +4 or +5 on a single category.

-- There are rare magic types that all but a exceptional few unicorns score more than a -4; these are transfiguration, space/time (including teleportation), soul (control over a living soul), necromancy (dead soul/dead body/reanimation), and divination magics. Star-Swirl the Bearded had a (+3)-space/time and (+4)-soul magic.

-- Rex's Scores: (-0.5)-harmony, (-4)-dark, (+0.1)-chaos, (-1.5)-physical, (+3.75)-mental, (0)-active. (-3.5)-enchantment, (-4.7)-all elements, (-1)-transfiguration, (+4.8)-space/time, (+5)-soul, (-2)-necromancy, (+2)-divination.

Affinity chart (Yay MS paint!):

---

Changeling population: 341 (274 converted, 66 hatched, 1 permanent digital)
Changeling owned businesses: 7
Funds: $85.085 million cash + $62.1 million raw materials + $79.3 million in businesses + $45.185 million in investments + $7.1 million land & property. (Total wealth: $278.77 million, or $0.82 million per changeling.)

Changeling divisions:
-Finances (those who make money for the hive)
-Love collectors (those who make love for the hive)
-Research & Development (those who make toys for the hive)
-Silencers (those who make you shut up about the hive)
-Infiltrators (those who infest other organizations for the hive)
-Saboteurs (those who break things for the hive, subdivision of infiltrators)
-Trappers (those who hunt for the hive, aid the king in catching people alone so that they can be converted. Most are also Silencers or Infiltrators.)
-Soldiers & Assassins (being established now)

Changeling properties:

-The Bee Hive (low-cost housing, south side of Atlanta)
-The Eye of the Beholder (bar/night club, near Atlantic Station)
-Livewire Club (Bar/sex club)
-The Ore Mine
-Individual houses/apartments of the converts
-Hidey-Hole apartments.

---

(Edited 1/20/2014 at 9:50 am Eastern time)